Israel Matzav: Another nail in the demographic crisis coffin?

Another nail in the demographic crisis coffin?

On Thursday, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released what may be another nail in the coffin of the claim that Israel is facing a demographic crisis. The CBS reports that the birth rate for 'Israeli Muslims' has fallen drastically since 2000.

According to a press statement by the CBS released Thursday, at the end of 2008 the Muslim population in Israel stood at 1.240 million, an increase of 34,000 compared with the previous year.

The growth rate, 2.8 percent, is a whole percentage point lower than the 3.8% measured in 2000. Nevertheless, the Muslim population's growth rate is still higher than that of any other religious group in Israel (Druse at 1.8%, Christian Arabs at 1.3%, Jews and others at 1.6%).

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The Muslim population in Israel is relatively young, with 510,000 - 41.2% of the overall Muslim population - aged up to 14. Only 3% (around 37,000) were found to be older than 65.

The relatively young age stems from Muslim women's high fertility rate; however, the overall fertility rate (the number of children a woman is expected to give birth to during her lifetime) has dropped from 4.7 per woman in 2000 to 3.8 per woman in 2008.

Israeli Muslim women are more fertile than other groups (Jews average 2.9 children per woman, Druse 2.5, Christians 2.1) and also more fertile than women in neighboring countries (Jordan and Syria 3.1, Egypt 2.9, Morocco and Algiers 2.4, Lebanon 2.2 and Tunisia 1.9).

But the Jewish birth rate has been rising. Heh.

Israel Matzav: Another nail in the demographic crisis coffin?